Tuesday, April 28, 2009

While the greater Wilmington, NC area in general and Leland in specific is not feeling the same real estate crunch and our area is officially NOT in a recession, it still might be of interest to people who follow my blog to hear what Jim Gillespie, CEO of Coldwell Banker has to say about two moves that will help the real estate market turn the nation's economy back up.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

What a great time! Sunday evening Marge and I went to have dinner at Front Street Brewery in downtown Wilmington, NC. It's located on . . . Front Street! 9 North Front Street to be exact.

Posing with Marge.

Inside, Front Street Brewery was bustling. The restaurant's Kiss High Prices Goodbye campaign featuring $5.99 lunches and $6.99 dinners has been a huge success, bringing visitors and locals to the restaurant regularly to enjoy the well-prepared, reasonably price meals in a convivial downtown Wilmington establishment.

Marge had gorgonzola salad with grilled salmon.

Ty Downing and I both had pulled chicken nachos. I'd heard good things about this dish. (They were right!)

Southwestern salmon.

There are many fine places to eat in the greater Wilmington, NC area. Approximately 1,100 according to some sources. Try 'em all, but when you want dependable, yummy food in a hip atmosphere where you won't bust your wallet, be sure to go where the locals go . . . to Front Street Brewery.

Nearly 2,000 guests attended Saturday's Springfest 2009 in Brunswick River Park in Leland, NC yesterday. Food, music, crafts, community business booths, kids amusements, and general festive celebratory feelings were all present. This photo and video blog post captures only a small slice of this great community event.

Saturday afternoon Marge and I went to Grayson Park in Leland, NC for two reasons. The first was to tour and talk about Stevens Fine Homes solar model featured in Grayson Park. The second reason was to party!

As soon as we got to the clubhouse and said hello we headed over to the solar model home.

From the front the house looks like the other homes on the street, but state-of-the-art solar panels on the back roof provide all the energy used by the house.

Here's developer and builder Craig Stevens talking about the solar home and the party!

We also met some folks in the market for environmentally sound, energy savings home, including Michael Rhodes, who is touring all the green homes and communities in the area before making a decision.

And, in Michael's words

Inside the model plenty of people were asking about the solar home from Matt, the site's construction manager.

Jennie Steele, Stevens Fine Homes Marketing Director took a few minutes to welcome us also.

As did Cynthia Rehberg, on-site sales specialist.

And Stan Powell, the other on-site sales specialist, here talking and laughing with Marge.

Brian Sartan of the Home Builders Association was on hand.

And happy to say a few words:

We also ran into old friend Lin Spears, Sales Manager of the local Countrywide office

With the introductions made and the good info about solar homes and environmentally-conscious building digesting, it was time to party. As you can see from the photo below, Craig Stevens and I were certainly ready!

Grayson Park residents and their guests, other visitors, and many REALTORs from the area gathered around the pool for food, drink, music, and conviviality.

Middle of the Island, the always-popular catering company, provided the food. It was tasty!

We even had a visit from one of Leland's finest, checking up on the music and the commotion.

The music, provided by Wilmington area's only calypso-style steel drum band, Pantastic Steel, was dance ready and a lot of fun. So if you have about three and half minutes, click on the video below, put it in HD, full-screen mode, turn up your speakers or headset volume and enjoy!